What Can He Do Now?
by A Heart On Fire
Summary: Case fic with a supernatural touch. There was a school bombing at a college in Georgia. But there are no victims, and the only person present is completely unharmed. Can the team figure out this mystery?
1. Chapter 1

The day was just a normal day. The time was a normal time. The school was a normal school. The people were normal people. And everything else in the world seemed just that: normal. As it always seems before the unthinkable.

For Tommy, the day was not a normal day. It was not a normal time, not a normal school, and there were no normal people. For him, it was all about to change. One problem led to one choice which led to one decision. The action he was about to perform was one that he had thought long and hard about, a thought that had consumed his every waking moment. Even now, as Tommy walked fast down the walkway, his thoughts burned into his mind. Distracted, he wasn't watching where he was going.

Among the many college students who crowded the campus, there was a girl who had been staring the opposite way towards the main campus building. Standing under the doorway, she gave every apearance of the new girl. She looked down at the paper in her hand, then looked up again with a confused expresion. Spotting Tommy, she asked, "Excuse me, do you know where I could find Professor Harik's office?"

Torn abruptly from his own world, Tommy dropped his backpack. "Oh, I'm sorry," the girl immediately apologized, "Here, let me help you with that."

She went instantly to the ground to recover the fallen object. Tommy tried to intercept her but it was too late. He saw her eyes briefly widen in shock. She abruptly stood up and took a deep breath. In that moment, Tommy pitied the girl. "If you know what that means, I want you to just walk away... right now." He spoke in a low voice as he bent to pick up the detonation device she had discovered.

"Why do you want to do this?" she asked.

"I have no other choice, this is the only way." Tommy replied sadly.

"There is always another option. What is your name?"

Tommy snorted. "As if I would tell you. Get out now, I don't want to hurt you."

"My name is Nicole, Nicole Gabriel. Can I pray for you?" The girl ignored Tommy's demand.

"Leave now! Why waste your time with me? I'm not worth your prayers."

"I disagree, everyone is worth prayers. After all, Jesus died for you too." Nicole continued to argue.

"Your God never helped me! Leave Me Alone! If He couldn't take care of me then, than **what can He do now**?" Tommy now became angry. Taking a deep breath, he said "If your God could do anything, I would need proof. Certain, undeniable, unfakeable truth." His grip tightened on the detonator. "One last chance Nicole, leave now."

"My God can do many things, Tommy," Nicole said with a sad, strange look on her face, "And there are always more chances."

"Then I'm sorry," Tommy whispered, "but I can't find them." With that, his finger hit the button, and the normal day was no longer normal... BOOM!


	2. Chapter 2

**Most simple disclaimer ever: I don't own Criminal Minds.**

At BAU headquarters at Quantico, Virginia...

"Kid, please tell me you have better plans than to read all week long? I mean, one week vacation time is too long to just do that. Live a little," Derek Morgan teased his co-worker Spencer Reid.

"Is there something wrong with that? Reading is way more entertaining than seeing people," Reid replied honestly.

"Heads up guys, we got a live one," Jennifer Jareau said as she brushed past Reid's desk on her way to the conference room.

Morgan and Reid exchanged glances. "So much for that vacation time," said Morgan wistfully.

"Alright, so what do we have?" Aaron Hotchner said as he entered the room.

JJ instantly began to describe the case, "A school bombing at the University of Georgia, small detonation, it destroyed two campus buildings, the Health Center and the Administration Building, as well as most of their gym." She pointed at the screen where several pictures of the scene flashed by.

"Doesn't look so small to me," David Rossi commented, raising his eyebrow at the damage done, "How many lives lost?"

"Surprisingly, none. The unsub attacked an empty campus," JJ replied.

"No victims?" Emily Prentiss thought aloud, "Why would someone blow up a school without a target? Do you think someone could be trying to get our attention?"

"If the attack was just for attention, someone will take responsability for it soon; we should be getting a notice any time now," chimed in Reid, "But since it was at a school, it is also possible that the unsub had bad memories of this place, and believes that by destroying it he is erasing the past. The timing of the unsub for attacking when nobody was there shows this to be more likely than an attack on a particular person."

"There wasn't entirely no one there, Spence. Now if you all will let me finish..." JJ redirected the conversation, "We have a single unidentified male, about 22 years of age, currently at Mercy Hospital in Athens. He was found unconscious near what the local police believe to be the center of the explosion.

"Unconscious? He's lucky to be alive, being that close to the explosion... Could this guy be our unsub?" asked Morgan.

"Or our intended victim," Hotch replied standing up. "The jet leaves in 15 minutes... when we get there I want Reid, Rossi, and JJ to interview John Doe. The rest of us will head to the scene of the crime. Garcia, I know that it's a long shot, but I want you to check ViCAP for any reports of school bombings without victims."

"Yes sir," Penelope Garcia awnsered as she stood to leave for her office.

"Alright everyone, let's go." Hotch said.


	3. Chapter 3

It was a warm, spring day. The laughter of children echoed through his ears as a young boy about 9 years of age cautiously entered the school's playground. He quickly made a straight line for the swingset, to the seat farthest away from all the other children.

Recess was not at all this child's favorite activity of the day. Geting picked on was no fun, the boy knew this well. There was name-calling, being picked last for school sports, no one ever wanting to talk to him, even occasional physical bullying. Nothing too damaging had happened yet, but it still hurt.

That's why he sat away from everyone. As always. This was nothing new to him, he was beyond used to it. But if you stay out of everybody's way, then you might be okay. Or at least that was what he was hoping, on that warm, spring day.

"Hey Thomas!" called out the voice of one Bill Jones. "Bull" (as people called him) was the biggest child in the whole 3rd grade. And he was walking directly to the boy on the swings. Andrew Sayler (or "Ace" as people called him), Bull's best friend, followed closely behind.

Tommy quickly stood up and tried to look for an exit. Backing up, he attempted to calm his racing heartbeat. "What do you want?" Tommy asked, acting more bravely than he felt.

"What do we want?" awnsered Ace mockingly, "That's no way to talk to your friends, is it Bull?"

"No way," Bull agreed, "Now Ace, I thought we had told this runt before, that this playground was ours, and no ugly or stupid people were allowed on it."

"Oh really, then why are you here?" as soon as the words left his mouth, Tommy regreted them. He so wished in that moment that he could take them back into his mind, to the only place those words belonged.

"What did you just say to me?! Ace, you hearing this? It's like this kid is asking for a beating," Bull said in wonder. His eyes narrowed as his hand curled into a fist, "I guess you diddn't learn your lesson from before."

Tweet! The sound of the whistle was like music to Tommy's ears. "Time to go inside, you two," the school's new assistant gym teacher walked over to where the boys were standing.

Tommy diddn't know her that well, but the tall, blonde woman was an adult, and that was all he needed to know. Surely she could protect him. The bullies looked tough to him, but they were no match for someone official from the school.

"We weren't gonna do anything," Ace protested, "Honest, we were just talking."

"Apologize to him," the woman ordered, pointing to Tommy, "and then you can go play somewhere else."

"But we weren't-" Bull started.

"I don't want to hear it; either apologize or go inside to wait for recess to be over." she interrupted his sentence.

"Sorry Tommy," both boys said unconvincingly. They shot identical glares of anger at both him and his rescuer, before running off to the other side of the playground.

"Are you alright?" the gym assistant asked Tommy.

"I'd be better if they were far away, maybe on Mars," Tommy replied sadly.

"We can't make some things disappear when we want them to. One thing we can do is forgive them and continue on our way." The woman said gently.

_That's a strange thing to say, why should I forgive them? _Tommy thought as he listened to the woman. She took his hand and led him back to the swingset. She was saying something else but he could not understand her words.

Her voice echoed as Tommy strained to hear. The more he tried to concentrate on her words, the farther away they sounded. He felt as if the world around him was going numb. For one awful moment, nothingness was all he felt.

Then he woke up fully. He instantly shot up to observe his surrounding. He was in a hospital, that much was obvious. The white sheets underneath him on his bed were soaked with sweat. Physical proof of his nightmare/flashback. The smell of disinfectants and other disturbingly clean smells hit his nose.

For a moment he was confused, he was still the 9 year old at the school playground. What was he doing at a hospital? Then it all came back and hit him. Yesterday, University of Georgia, people, bomb, ...BOMB!

_I need to get out of here!_ His first thought hit him in a panic. He quickly swung his legs over the side of the bed and used pressure to help him stand up. Smack! That was the sound of his knees buckling, or to be more precise, the sound of him falling straight down to the floor.

As he lay on the ground, temporarily stunned, a nurse quietly chuckled to herself. "Your body was just in an explosion, and asleep for almost a whole day... give it a minute."

"In an explosion?" Tommy wondered aloud, suddenly remembering how close he was when he set off the bomb, "Wait, how am I alive?"


	4. Chapter 4

_"In an explosion?" Tommy wondered aloud, suddenly remembering how close he was when he set off the bomb, "Wait, how am I alive?"_

"Oh it's not that bad. You've only got a few sctatches," the nurse replied, obviously misunderstanding his meaning.

"Oh... okay..." Tommy was still a little out of it.

"Here, let me help you," the woman reached out to help him stand up.

"Um, thanks," Tommy said gratefully. He tried to regain his balance.

"You should go lay down some more, give your body more rest."

"No, I need to leave," Tommy protested.

The nurse disagreed, "No, you need to sit down. I'm going to go get your doctor so he can check you out. In the meantime, if you need anything press that button and I'll be right back here. My name is Amber, by the way. What's yours?"

"Uh, Tommy... I think," the boy awnsered holding his head.

"Well it's nice to meet you, Tommy," Amber said, leading him back up into the hospital bed. "Just sit tight and I'll send up your doctor right up here in just a minute." That being said, Amber turned and walked right out the door.

Tommy laid back and tried to gather his thoughts.

CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM CM

As soon as the jet landed, the team split up. JJ and Reid started for Mercy Hospital as they had been told. Rossi also joined them to interview John Doe.

"Have you ever noticed that hospitals, the place that is suppost to save lives, always smells like death?" JJ commented, walking through the front doors.

Reid was ready with an awnser, "Really it's not as mcuh the actual smell of death that you smell in a hospital, as it is the disinfectants and sterilizing sprays. You only think it smells like death because your brain associates that smell with hospitals, which remind you of dying. Your smell sensors send that information to your head, therefore making you think that hospitals smell like death."

"... Hey JJ, have you ever noticed that hospitals smell like death?" Rossi asked with small smile. Upon reaching the receptionist's desk he became more serious, "Ma'am, I'm Agent David Rossi with the FBI," he, JJ, and Reid all pulled out their badges and displayed them, "and these are my associates, Agent Jareau and Dr. Reid. May we speak with the survivor of the University of Georgia bombing?"

"Of course," the receptionist replied before signaling to a young woman to come over, "We've been expecting you since your phone call this morning." The woman she had called to walked up to the desk as the receptionist continued, "This is Amber, she works in the area where your John Doe is at. Amber, will you please take these agents up to his room?"

"Sure no problem, he only woke up a few minutes ago; I was just about to send his doctor to him." She then turned to the three waiting people. "Follow me," Amber said cheerfully, "Maybe by now he might have made it to the door."

"What?" JJ looked confused.

"Never mind," Amber laughed to herself, "Right this way." She walked off toward the elevator.

The three agents exchanged looks. They followed her into the elevator.

"So tell me, how bad are this kid's injuries?" JJ asked the nurse as the doors closed behind them.

Amber pushed the button for the fourth floor. "Not bad at all, he's just a little bruised. To tell the truth, I would have never guessed that he was caught in the explosion if I hadn't have seen him being loaded off that ambulance myself."

"That's suprising," Reid commented.

The elevator stopped and the doors opened. "Ya'll are FBI right? Do you think that this means that there might be more targets in the future?" the nurse questioned, looking concerned.

Rossi looked grim, "We certainly hope not."

"Ok... his room is right down this hall, room 432," Amber gestured down the hallway to their left.

"Thank you," JJ replied.

The three FBI agents left the nurse behind as they walked down the indicated hallway.

WCHDN? WCHDN? WCHDN? WCHDN? WCHDN? WCHDN? WCHDN? WCHDN? WCHDN? WCHDN? WCHDN? WCHDN? WCHDN? WCHDN? WCHDN?

After Amber left Tommy's brain seemed to cooperate with him better. More memories slowly crept back into his mind.

Tommy laid there in the hospital bed, trying to figure out what could had happened the previous day after he passed out. Realizing that he could not do that on his own, he turned on the television set in the room, with hopes of finding out the truth of what had happened.

The tv flicked on to life on a news channel. The first thing Tommy could do was immediately see the message that was written in subtittles beneath the reporter. _...bombing at the University of Georgia yesterday afternoon. The FBI has been notified of this confusing case and has sent a team of agents to..._ Tommy turned off the television.

_Oh that's just great, _he thought, _just what I need. _He rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"Knock, knock," came a voice from the door. The owner of that voice stepped into the room, followed by two men. "I'm Agent Jenifer Jareau from the FBI, this is Agent David Rossi and Dr. Spencer Reid. May we talk to you?"

_Oh, this is just wonderful, _Tommy thought sarcasticly. Out loud he said, "Sure, come in. How can I help you?"

"We need to ask you some questions about the bombing, Mr..." Rossi started.

"Thomas Landre, call me Tommy," Tommy awnsered Rossi's unspoken question.

"Ok Tommy, do you remember what were you doing at the school?" Rossi continued.

"Um, I was going to class. I had a big test in my Statistics class," Tommy lied. _What kind of a question is that? What else would a person say? 'Oh I went to school to blow it to pieces'? _he thought.

"So there was class that day?" Reid asked.

"Yes..." Tommy awnsered. _Duh, _Tommy thought. He was begining to think that these FBI agents were just terrible interviewers.

"Really, was anybody else there then?" JJ questioned.

"Well, yeah, of course. Why wouldn't there be?" Tommy was slightly annoyed now, not understanding the agents' line of questioning.

The agents ignored his question. Rossi tried a different, bolder tactic, "So you had nothing to do with that bomb set off yesterday?"

Tommy stared up at the agents standing above him. A strong sense of self-preservation hit him suddenly and temporarily overpowered his confusion. "No, of course not," he said angrily, "why would you think that it was me? There were hundreds of other people there yesterday. Why not go bother them?!"

The three agents exchanged surprised looks.

"What is the problem now?" Tommy asked exasperated.

"Tommy, there was no one there but you," JJ finally said after a few moments of silence.

The statement threw Tommy totally off-balance. "What do you mean, there was no one there but me? People were everywhere!"

"That's impossible, there were no other people found within two miles of the targeted buildings, only you," Reid added to the conversation.

"But... that's..." Tommy was way beyond confused now, "no, that's not right there were people there... I bumped into people along the walkways, I saw them there, heard them speaking...You must be mistaken," suddenly Tommy's face lit up with a memory, "I was talking to a new girl, she was standing right next to me. Surely you've found her?"

"There's no mistake," Rossi spoke up, "no one was found."

"No people, no girl," JJ shook her head, agreeing with Rossi.

"But I saw her, I..." his voice trailed off as he suddenly remembered something "...knew my name," for a second, the boy looked astonished, almost afraid.

"I would hope that you knew your own name, Son" Rossi awnsered, clearly believing, as JJ already did, that Tommy was crazy. Or at least fell a little too hard on his head during the blast.

"No, not me... the girl, the new girl at the university. She knew my name, but I didn't tell her," Tommy's voice got slower as his brain tried its hardest to comprehend this new mystery. The harder he tried to understand, the bigger his headache grew. His brain was killing him, he had so many questions. Deep in thought, he continued to speak, "She was trying to tell me something, but I don't remember exactly what...You know, she did seem kind of familiar..." His voice drifted away.

"Tommy, we didn't find anyone else." JJ said gently, recapturing his attention.

"But I know she was there!" Tommy insisted.

"Maybe she woke up before you did and ran away before the ambulance arrived," Reid thought aloud, "Do you know her name? She might be able to help us in our investigation."

_Ran away? I couldn't get her to leave me when I asked her to_. Tommy thought in dry amusement. _Whoa, where did that come from?_ he abruptly questioned his memory. Out loud he replied, "I've never seen her before that day, she said her name was Nicole Gabriel."

Suddenly a noise was heard from the doorway. "Ok Tommy, one of the nurses informed me that somebody was ready to leave?" a doctor, looking down at a chart in his hand, entered the room. Looking up, he noticed the three people standing around Tommy. Eyeing their FBI badges, he asked, "I'm sorry, am I interupting?"

"No, not at all," Rossi awnsered, "We were just finishing." He turned to exit the room.

"Goodbye Tommy, get some rest," JJ said, following the older man's lead.

Reid followed close behind them as they went to report back to the rest of the team.


	5. Chapter 5

The doctor was only in Tommy's room for a few minutes, and then he left. Once he was left alone to sit there on that hospital bed, Tommy had a lot to think about. The events of the past day were still a little fuzzy in his mind. But he was slowly piecing it together.

_Flashback:_

Tommy carefully placed the backpack which held the package down under a staircase by the Admin. Building. He began to walk back the way he came from. Heart pounding, he tried to seem casual as he surveyed his surroundings. So many people were around, it was such a shame. There really only was one target after all.

How had it all gotten to this? When had his life become so complicated? But then, hasn't it always been that way? These thoughts swirled around Tommy as he sat on a nearby bench. _I might as well think this through,_ he thought,_ I'm in no rush._

_I guess it goes all the way back to those days at 3rd grade, that's where it all started..._

_Even more flashback:_

It had been almost three weeks since that day on the playground. And every day since then young Tommy looked foward to gym class. All day long he was picked on at school, but from 12 to 1, on every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; he was ok. The new gym assistant, who insisted on being called Ms. Brianne, had quickly become his new favorite person at the school. On her first day, she had seen Bull push Tommy during a play basketball game. She imediently called him out on it and he sat the rest of the class on the bench. Ms. Brianne always was nice to Tommy; she gave him advice on his sports moves, let him be team captain for a few different games, and helped him gain confidence in himself.

Over the course of three weeks, gym had gone from his most hated class, to his most anticipated class. And it was all because of Ms. Brianne. Tommy felt like a million dollars every time he walked to the gym.

Of course that good feeling usually left at about 1:01 on his gym days. And Bull and Ace didn't just forget about him. In fact, they seemed to have made it their personal goal in life to torment him. Tommy was shoved against lockers, was locked in the janitor's closet, was "accidentally" tripped in the hallways, and was constantly being called names. Bull and Ace's pranks seemed to get worse and worse each day.

Tommy's thoughts were always hovering around this subject. But he was unsure of what to do about it. He told a few teachers, but they either ignored him or told him to just get over it. He was a little afraid that his parents would do the same, so he avoided telling them. And he had no friends to talk to about it at school.

Tommy walked down the halls one day on his way to his next class, alone as usual. There was no one who wanted to be his friend in school, or at least no one he could find. Suddenly Tommy stopped right in the middle od the hallway. _Ms. Brianne is my friend_, he thought, _surely I could talk to her about it. _Feeling reasured in this new thought, he impatiently waited through all of his classes until the school day was finally over.

As soon as his last class was dismissed, Tommy ran over to the gym. Running fast, he almost bumped straight into the gym coach as he was locking the gym's doors. Coming to an abrupt stop, Tommy panted, "Coach David... is Ms. Brianne still here?"

"She just walked out. Try the teachers' parking lot," the coach replied, pointing to his left.

"Thank you sir," Tommy quickly took off in that direction.

Scanning the parking lot as soon as he got there, Tommy almost instantly spotted his teacher. She was just opening the door to get into her car when Tommy ran up to her. "Ms. Brianne! I need to talk to you."

The gym assistant looked suprised to see him, "Tommy, what are you doing here? You're going to miss your bus."

"I walk home," the boy responded. He took his teacher's concern as a good sign that she might listen to him.

"What can I do for you?" Ms. Brianne turned to face him fully.

"I wanted to ask you about something," Tommy said, suddenly unsure of what he was going to ask.

"Well ask away," Tommy now had her full attention.

"It's about Bull and Ace, they've been really mean to me," Tommy started.

"Yes, I've seen how they've been treating you," Ms. Brianne nodded in sympathy.

"They always have treated me like that, and I really don't know why," Tommy explained, "And I don't know what to do about it. And I can't talk to anyone about it. I feel really alone." Getting the words out made Tommy's chest feel a little lighter.

"Tommy," Ms. Brianne took a deep breath and continued, "First off, being bullied is not your fault, I just want to point that out. You haven't done anything wrong. Bull and Ace are only doing this because they think people will respect them for it. They are wrong, Tommy."

Tommy looked reasured at hearing that.

Ms. Brianne continued to speak, "What to do about it is the hard part, Tommy. You can't force them to stop. What they do is their responsibility, how you respond is yours. Now this might sound a little strange, but this is my advice to you. Straight from the Bible (Matthew 5:44), "'Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.' What that means, is that you should not try to get even with them, but you should be nice to them."

Tommy looked confused.

Seeing his expression Ms. Brianne explained further, "Bullies try to get people to be insecure and angry. If you awnser them with kindness, they will get bored and leave you alone. Being nice to them will also make the bullies confused, and they usually won't want to pick on you anymore."

Tommy looked as if he was starting to understand the logic in that.

Encouraged, the gym assistent kept on talking, "And as for being alone, you can always talk to me. Praying to God can also help a lot. And... I know someone in your grade who I just met the other day. She is a new student here, just moved into the area, and I think she's having a little trouble making friends. Maybe I can introduce her to you tomorrow at gym?"

During the whole conversation Tommy had felt so much better. He had never felt like he had so many options before. He wasn't entirely sure of the teacher's advice, but he felt that he might as well try it. "Sure, that could be cool," Tommy replied to Ms. Brianne's offer, "I have to go now, I don't want to get home too late. Thank you so much."

"You're welcome, see you tomorrow," Ms. Brianne said with a smile.

"Bye!" Tommy waved as he ran excitedly away towards his house. For the first time in forever, he couldn't wait until tomorrow.


End file.
